This past weekend was a sobering reminder of how easily we can fall from reality and how even more quickly we can be shockingly returned to it.It was a barometer of life’s priorities — of what fuels our emotions and passion for all things seemingly important.And ultimately, it was a lesson on what truly matters in the scheme of life, jolting us into a state of reality.On Sunday morning everyone with any remote interest in college football was buzzing over the previous day’s occurrences.Alabama fans were outraged, bewildered and uncertain of how to take life’s next steps after a gut-wrenching last-second loss to bitter rival Auburn in the Iron Bowl.Missouri fans were overjoyed, stuck in a state of euphoria after the Tigers’ milestone victory against Texas A&M sent them barreling unsuspectingly into the SEC Championship game.If you were like many Alabama fans, you were still picking up the pieces on Sunday, trying to come to terms with the outcome.On the contrary, Missouri fans were basking in the success of their once ridiculed team. For the Tiger faithful, life was good and nothing could break their spirits.But for many of those in Warren County, that joy turned into sadness on Sunday afternoon with news revealed of a young life lost.For a moment, time stands still and the significance of a football win is suddenly dwarfed by the fragileness of life.You see, I’m both an Alabama fan and a Mizzou fan. And there was a time when I would have lamented the Crimson Tide’s loss for a week and rode the high of the Tigers’ victory for perhaps months to follow.For whatever reason — I’m not sure what prompted the shift in reaction — I found myself numb to the emotions on Saturday. Admittedly, I have cried over football losses before, a product of fervent passion for my favorite sport.But I didn’t react to either extreme on Saturday, and I was both surprised and proud of myself. It’s like I had finally come to realize how insignificant one game or even an entire season is in the realm of life.Alabama ‘fans’ flooded their kicker with death threats after he missed three costly field goals that sent their beloved Crimson Tide plummeting from the No. 1 spot in the polls.A so-called fan shot and killed another after being angered by that individual’s lack of concern over Alabama’s shocking defeat.I reminded myself and wondered how these folks had somehow distanced themselves so far from reality that they forgot — it’s just a game — not worth taking a person’s life over.And on Sunday evening that reality become even more evident and football suddenly became irrelevant.News began to spread about the death of Chad Lewis, a 17-year-old senior at Wright City High School.People who had little interaction with him during his life suddenly drew a deep connection and felt an unbearable hurt through his passing. As folks began to grieve and empathize with the family during this time of deep sadness, everything else in life, including the outcome of a football game, suddenly seem minute and petty.It was at that moment that I began to realize the importance of being level-headed in response to the football games on Saturday.I had reminded fellow fans as they were brewing with frustration that losing happens and it’s just a game with the slightest of impact on our lives as a whole. We burden ourselves with the ‘what-ifs’ and ‘should of done this’ scenarios that are senseless because the past cannot be relived.The same can be said for death and its reasonings.We are quick to jump to conclusions and overwhelm ourselves with asking why and trying to comprehend something that is so complex it isn’t intended to be understood.I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and sometimes that is very difficult to grasp in the moment.I lost a brother as a teenager, and I had plenty of questions as to what good was supposed to come of something so tragic. But time reveals those answers and I would also hope that in time we come to recognize the few things in life that truly matter.If we can take anything away from the loss of another young life, let it be that we should appreciate the little things but not obsess over them.Instead, let’s value relationships and lives and quit holding grudges over ballgames and other significances in life, because it is simply too fragile.EDITORIALRecord Photo.